My Goal: Too much prejudice in this world - and not just racial. Religious and especially political prejudice is more prevalent and more harmful. The blogosphere has added to that and I want to subtract from it.

Here's some of my life and the things I'm interested in. You can find more info in my Permanent File. Click on the Categories under Blog Index to the Right.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Here’s some interesting stories that appeared in various magazines and newspapers around the world. I think that they’re all important in some way.

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About Terrorism

Both Congress and Europe have dropped “The War on Terrorism” as a label. Important sectors of public opinion no longer believe that such a thing is even occurring. The label has become politically incorrect. However,

The International Herald Tribune has this story about the push for nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Anybody who is too ideological (either left or right) is going to have trouble dealing with the issues of the day. Hollywood is notoriously left – way left. I think that’s the source of their trouble. Like left-wingers everywhere else (see above) they are in denial.

There is a real problem with the attitude that everything George Bush is for, I’ve got to be against. Just because George Bush is concerned about terrorism does not mean that the issue does not exist.

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The Arab Media

The same problem with denial is in how people want to ignore what’s in the Arab media. The sheer vitriol against Jews is just one of the very disturbing things one sees. We want to believe that only a few of the Muslims are fanatics. But our desires should not war with realities. In America, we complain about left-wing or right-wing bias. This is nothing to compare with the venom one sees in the Arab outlets on the net.

Sadly, Conservatives seem willing to notice this; while liberals seem to deny it. Like the “War on Terror”, stories like the below ought not to be ignored.

That doesn’t mean that the bias in the Western Media isn’t a problem, too.. Here’s a comment on The BBCfrom The London Times. Other media malefactors: The New Republic; and Newsweek.

"The narrative was right but the facts were wrong" – Evan Thomas, Newsweek.(Translation: the guilty defendants were actually innocent.)

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Global Warming

This may very well be real. One can’t help but notice that there’s a bandwagon effect going on about this issue. And in the rush to judgment, facts are being presented that aren’t true – and at the highest levels of government and society. For example:

Are recent years really the hottest on record? Here’s the corrected stories: From The Calgary Sun and from The National Post. Notice that it was the Canadian media that highlighted this screw-up by NASA?

Scientists with sincere, credible dissent on the newest fad are getting hammered. See this story about “Green McCarthyism” from The New York Post..

Prejudice of the Political Kind

This is highlighted by George Will in a column in The Washington Post about Barack Obama.

Backwards and Forwards

Finally, here’s some positive news – at least I think it’s positive.

The Pope brings back the Latin Mass. Never could figure why folks in the Catholic Church was so against this. Liturgy is something where even conservatives can be pro-choice. And what’s so wrong with seeing how Christians worshipped in those years gone by?

Ready for the latest scientific find? Smart people aren’t necessarily the most successful. Success seems to depend more on hard work and commitment than smarts. I think they mean financially, but I suspect that if they measured success in terms of love and romance, they would find the same thing.